Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1967, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his groundbreaking speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” at New York City’s Riverside Church.

To mark the anniversary, public readings of the original text will be offered throughout the U.S., including one at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, at Chapel Hill’s Peace and Justice Plaza, 179 East Franklin St.

The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored jointly by Eisenhower Chapter 157 Veterans For Peace and the Triangle Raging Grannies, the event will feature veterans, clergy, elected officials, and others, each reading portions of the 50-minute text in which Dr. King called out the “triple evils of racism, militarism, and materialism,” and proclaimed the United States to be “the greatest purveyor of violence” in the world.

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